Ricerc@Sapienza

The energy refurbishment of the existing building heritage is one of the pillars of Italian energy policy. Aiming for energy efficiency and energy saving in end uses, there are wide and diversified improvement strategies, which include interventions on the building envelope and Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, with the introduction of renewable energy sources. The research aims at evaluating the building energy consumptions and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), varying the airflow rates handled by the HVAC system.

The most important challenge for planners and administrations is to identify optimal strategies for improving city life from a global point of view. Urban Planning models should therefore provide solutions in a coordinated and holistic way and should be flexible and adapted to different contexts and territorial levels. Currently, a global approach to the development of Smart Cities is still missing. In this paper the authors developed a planning methodology based on the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the reciprocal impacts among Smart strategies applied at the district level.

The high energy consumption of the lighting installations in highway tunnels has become a hot topic in the last few years due to the high figures in terms of money, consumed energy, use of raw materials, emissions of greenhouse gases due to the remarkable number of manufactured elements, and maintenance, among others. In spite of the different strategies proposed up to date and their savings, the potential benefits of decreasing the maximum speed allowed in tunnels have not been considered in depth as a complementary measure yet.

In this work, the thermal potentialities of insulation panels made of cork have been explored by means of a numerical approach based on experimental data. A comparative analysis between the panel in unaltered state, and then covered with an innovative shield coating (COIB 250®) was carried out. In addition, a defect simulating an inner detachment of the panel was fabricated to understand its behaviour during a daily solar thermal load. The site was selected ad hoc to avoid any shadow cast effect on the panel itself and any conduction phenomenon from the surrounding area.